Fiction by Joel Odom

I'm proud to announce the publication of The World Before Them . It's a thriller in a science fiction setting, written to be approachable even by those who aren't fans of sci-fi. It's a short novel, about 160 pages, meant to be fun and fast paced. The World Before Them is available in paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon . The description is below. Check it out and ENJOY! Click Here to View This Title on Amazon Garnet Blake, thirteen years old at the time, was not the first person born on another planet. That distinction belonged to Mac Warren, two years her senior. What distinguished Garnet was not even that she was among the first people to live outside our solar system. The reason history will remember Garnet is because she was the first person to disappear on another world... Maggie Montes must race against the clock to save thirteen-year-old Garnet Blake. Cecil Deckard must solve the puzzle behind the failure of the colony’s artificial intelligence. Fenton Masse...

My first collection of stories, 3.14 Stories , is now available on Audible and on iTunes . The audiobook is read by the incomparable Robin McAlpine . You can also purchase the Kindle or paperback edition on Amazon . This is my first foray into the world of publishing, so I'd love feedback on the stories or anything else about the project. The first story, "A Bizarre Game," is my personal favorite. I wanted to write a story that was pure fun, so there's no attempt in it at being literary or making any kind of point. It's just meant to be an hour-long escapist read, and it's intentionally a bit quirky. In the words of Mark Twain, "persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished." The book also includes my literary story that appeared in CHESS Magazine , "All These Christmases." You can learn more about the book's contents from my previous post . I hope you enjoy the stories. Merry Christmas!

I'm proud to announce that 3.14 Stories: A Few Contrasting Reads for Your Weekend  is now available in Kindle and paperback formats. I hope you enjoy it! A smalltown librarian finds himself trapped in a high-stakes game between eccentric, ultra-rich businessmen. A woman from the past appears in the middle of a contented marriage. A Russian clockmaker crafts an illicit piece that travels over continents and centuries... Stories should be fun and thought provoking. This collection of three stories will entertain and provoke introspection. 3.14 Stories includes two never-before-published works, “A Bizarre Game” and “A Husband and a Gentleman”; and a newly-revised version of “All These Christmases,” which appeared in its original version in CHESS Magazine . The stories in this collection will make you laugh and think. Expect about two hours of reading that will draw you in for an afternoon. 3.14 Stories also includes an excerpt from an upcoming novel! 3.14 Stories is available on Am...

I'm proud to announce that Chess Magazine has published a story of mine, All These Christmases , in their Christmas (January, 2022) edition. It's about 3,000 words and deals with time, memory and chess. Digital and print editions are now available at this link . I hope you find it enjoyable and thought provoking.

Thank you again to all of my test readers for your help! I've learned a few things. For example, I probably ought to find a new title. Any ideas? When I mailed your copies, I was suspicious of a handful of story elements, but I decided to have you test the story before I made too many changes. Based on your feedback, some of those elements do indeed require rework (or I may cut them altogether), whereas some of the elements that seemed cheesy to me went wholly unmentioned by test readers. I've created a graph of the average chapter-by-chapter feedback (below). It's not exactly scientific, but combined with your comments, it's helpful. It's especially interesting to see where there are big dips in the average. Those chapters are targets for deeper investigation. This will be my final test reader update. I need to spend a few months reworking certain elements of the story, then I need to iron out details like grammar and style. The plan is to suffer through some profe...

Summer has come and gone. Thank you to all of my test readers for your help. If you think I've been ignoring you, you're right! I've tried hard not to think about the novel so I can return to it with fresh eyes, making my own test read of it, cover to cover. The plan is to review your feedback after I have had a chance to read the book myself, comparing your feedback to my own fresh opinions. Be assured that all of your comments are captured, ready for me to review and organize. Using your opinions to zero in on the parts of the novel that don't work will be important as I work on fixing the bugs. I have a trip to California at the end of October, and will probably read through the novel on the plane, using November and December to create the third draft. If you haven't finished your test read yet, that's okay! You can still submit chapter-by-chapter feedback here . Also, if you'd like to send me any feedback directly or discuss anything, I'd be happy to...

2020 was a rough year. Most of us spent much of the year stuck at home. Many of us felt alone. What better way to spend hours that would have been wasted in a commute writing a novel about friendship! Now that I've finished the first draft, I am almost ready for test readers to help me make the novel better. I'd love your help! You don't have to be an expert in literature or grammar—you just have to like a good story and be willing to answer some easy questions about your reading experience. Here's How it Works You sign up for my test reader program. I mail you a hard copy of the second draft (it will be ready around June). You get four months to read the novel. After every chapter, you spend about ten to twenty minutes answering questions about your reading experience.  The questions are easy and will be answered online. Your answers will be anonymous, so you can rest assured that we'll still be friends later. That's all there is to it. It'll be fun! Here a...